Dispatches from Atlantis #16

SHAPESHIFTER (Part 2)

T WAS ON THIS PARTICULAR TRIP to the Valley of Fire that I learned smoking pot, while perhaps relaxing as a ritual, was a complete waste of psychoactive investment while in the throes of a powerful LSD experience. The tripper might congratulate themselves on having discerned the various weedy and pungent flavors in their particulate draw, but ultimately, the cosmic pinball show that was the night sky and the Mojave desert asserted themselves once more in the forefront of consciousness.

“Hey guys,” Jeff said. "Why don’t we go for a walk now? Now that the moon’s higher you can kinda see.”

I was going down and I was going to see the spot where this man dehydrated to death with his burro for real.

The group quickly agreed to hike out into the wash by the Seven Sisters rock formation. They vowed to stick together. Seventy yards out into the wash, Jeff suddenly said, “okay, okay, lets get in the middle of this Doppler shift!”

I thought I heard Ron audibly sigh.

“What dude?” Jeff barked.

“Sshh, shh not so loud dude,” Dina implored. Ron shrugged and turned west, rolling his eyes at me on the way to posturing like a mock Jesus. I stood farther out than the rest.

Soon enough the pattern of an approaching rustling sound, the wind, the roar of the plane and then ultimately the plane itself as it passed nearly overhead. I wondered if the Key Air pilots were able to see us down here. Nah, probably not.

Before the plane passed from view I began trekking further out into the wash, feeling like I wanted to take the lead. Fifteen feet later, a sage bush to my right began to rustle sharply, and I could see a large, dark shape fling itself upward from the bush and then fly off, quickly disappearing in the night sky.

Ron had heard it as well. “What was that Paul?”

“I think that was one big ass bat.”

We waited for Jeff and Dina to catch up with us before going any further. Ron and I said nothing to each other. We didn’t need to.

Another fifty yards out and the landscaped seemed to change some. We were approaching a larger slope.

“Whadda ya think guys? Do we go over, around, back or smoke a bowl?” Jeff asked.

“Smoking weed now is just a waste of it,” I said in protest. “It’s wasting money. I can’t possibly imagine the weed having an effect on me at this point.”

“As a matter of fact, yes it does. I don’t feel like I need it at…oh Christ, give it here.”

Maybe smoking the bowl was a good thing. I wasn’t too crazy about wandering farther out into a genuine wilderness, especially with some doubt in my head about just what the hell sorts of creatures were living in it. As it turned out, I didn’t have to say anything. Starting back to the car by the roadside rock formation, Ron and I exchanged the quick glance. We weren’t going to get too far ahead or behind the group this time.